Girl Ultra Setlist

lalala
rimel
blush
Ella tú y yo
Morena mía (Miguel Bosé cover)
Discrecíon
Jungle de locos
Llama
blu
Cosas que nadie ve
5to elemento
bruce willisss
Punk
DameLove
Amores de droga
Para que te acuerdas
tomás
Bombay

It’s always a busy evening in the Hamline Midway neighborhood of St. Paul when there’s a Loons game (Major League Soccer). A stone’s throw from the soccer pitch, it was an evening of Mexican R&B at the Turf Club, with Girl Ultra in town on a headlining tour.

Valgur (siblings Elizabeth and Hugo Valdivieso) got things started. A self-described, “avant pop” duo from Oaxaca, Mexico, the band has a pair of albums, including 2023’s Armageddon. They also toured with Magdalena Bay in 2024. Known for their religious and social commentary themes, the setup on stage ahead of time included several bibles at the front of the stage, with one also having a stuffed bear with a pair of swords(!) around it. Coming out in monk’s robes, Hugo set up at the laptop and electronic music and backing vocals, while Elizabeth had lead vocals. This is performance art for sure, but had a good sound underneath. The second song had Elizabeth scrolling on her phone seemingly on a social media app, and I was pretty well hooked even as I didn’t understand the vast majority of the Spanish lyrics.

A brief bit in English about being happy to be in Minnesota, the next song had a heavy electronic beat with almost staccato vocals, making a nice combination. The performance part of this had them frequently returning to their bibles, monk’s hoods constantly going up and down, and all over the stage. This was a pretty wild set-up around some pretty pop sounding music. This was very interesting to watch, as they hardly ever stayed still for long, particularly Elizabeth, who wasn’t tied to an instrument. Hugo kept the beats and music going, and Valgur were true to their pop rock ethos. A retro 80’s sounding number was a fun number, with a great instrumental section. It also turned out to be their last number, with an extended outro. With a quick bow from the siblings, Valgur headed off stage.

Girl Ultra (aka Mariana de Miguel) is a Mexican R&B artist with a handful of EPs, including the most recent, 2024’s blush, as well as a full length album in 2019’s Nuevos Aires. The band came to stage as a trio (vocals/electronic/guitar, bass, and drums). She was quite the performer, moving across the stage in the early numbers, including the hit blush. Given a guitar for the number Ella tú y yo, Miguel was pretty charismatic as the front woman. After a short-out of the computer near the drummer, there was a forced bit of banter, and Miguel noted this was the last date of the tour. We also got the band asking about what was going on in the busy neighborhood, and the resulting explanation of the soccer match (a 1-1 draw that clinched a playoff spot for the Loons, by the way), was quickly understood. Equipment problems fixed, it was back to the music, and Morena mía was a darker number with a great bass lick.

A long drum solo had Miguel get to move and pose at different parts of the stage. Setting up the next one, she said it was “an old sad song, just like me”, showing her good humor. Perhaps because I couldn’t follow most of the lyrics, I really got the chance to observe the performance and sound. And let me tell you, on those fronts, Girl Ultra nailed it. Some more technical difficulties were easily handled, and Girl Ultra had completely won the crowd over. The band was really enjoying themselves, with the three performers leaning on each other in an inverse circle at the end of a song. I loved a latter mid set number that had singer and bassist kicking feet together for a section of the song. Asking for some of the audience to come onstage absolutely got a pretty sizeable number of them up there, which is still one of my favorite band moves. Heading towards the end of the set, Girl Ultra had audience signing along on Damelove. The full out dance R&B came out on Amores de droga and it was an audience in full swing. A diss track, tomás, was great pop and a fun girl power song. Finishing strong with Bombay, Girl Ultra completed their tour strong, leaving a dancing crowd to head off to merch to happily chat with the band.